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Foreclosure fraud: AG releases critical report

One day after a reported settlement between Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Wells Fargo and Ally Financial with attorneys general across the U.S. in the foreclosure epidemic, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi released a highly critical presentation detailing legal issues surrounding the crisis.

The presentation, titled “Unfair, Deceptive and Unconscionable Acts in Foreclosure Cases,” was provided by the attorney general’s economic crimes division during an early December conference of the Florida Association of Court Clerks and Comptrollers as an overview and was not representative of any specific misconduct.

The comprehensive presentation was compiled in exploration of foreclosure malpractice and condemns banks, mortgage servicers, and law firms for contributing to the crisis by cutting corners.

Although not aimed at a specific case, four of Florida’s largest foreclosure law firms are under investigation by the state. The Florida Default Law Group, the Law Offices of Marshall C. Watson, P.A.; the Law Offices of David J. Stern, P.A.; and Shapiro & Fishman, LLP, all have denied wrong doing.

Sweeping evidence of mortgage fraud was outlined in the 98-page presentation complete with copies of alleged forged signatures, false notarizations, bogus witnesses and improper mortgage assignments. Examples of alleged fraud and missteps made during the securitization process by major financial institutions when they wrote, packaged, and sold mortgages during the boom years was also provided.

The “Unfair, Deceptive and Unconscionable Acts in Foreclosure Cases” presentation meticulously documents cases of questionable signatures, notarizations that could not have occurred when claimed due to expired notary commissions and foreclosures filed by banks or law firms that lacked legal standing to foreclose on a particular property.

The presentation also focused largely on assignments of mortgage, a legal document that transfers ownership of mortgages from one bank to another. Mortgage assignments became an issue after the real estate boom, when mortgages were sold and resold, packaged into securitized trusts and otherwise transferred in a fashion that made tracking difficult.

“The Attorney General’s Office has a long standing commitment to fighting mortgage fraud and is dedicated to continuing this critical effort,” said Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi. “Since 2008, our office has started over 150 formal mortgage fraud investigations, 70 which remain active, 21 that resulted in civil lawsuits, and over 50 companies in review.”

As the foreclosure crisis mounted, banks and law firms appointed people to create assignments, of which tens of thousands were executed by robo-signers who failed to properly verify the claims in which they were swearing upon.

In one example, the signature of an individual named Linda Green appears – in varying styles – on hundreds of thousands of mortgage documents from dozens of banks and mortgage companies.

In another example, the signature of Scott Anderson, an employee of West Palm Beach-based Ocwen Financial Corp., appears in four styles on mortgage assignments.

Paul Koches, executive vice president of Ocwen, has acknowledged that the signatures were not all Anderson’s, “but that doesn’t mean they were forged,” he said. “Certain employees were given authorization to sign for Anderson on mortgage assignments.” Once the robo-signing crisis was revealed, Ocwen stopped allowing other employees to sign for Anderson.

“For the sake of expediency, no one bothered to verify or otherwise validate these assignments and affidavits prior to signing them,” says Carlos J. Reyes, a foreclosure defense attorney with the Reyes Law Group in Fort Lauderdale. “In some cases, courts have found that banks did not have standing to foreclose on the property sued upon.”

To learn more about the mortgage foreclosure crisis or to file a complaint with the Attorney General’s Office, visit www.myfloridalegal.com or call (866) 9-NO-SCAM (866-966-7226). To review the scathing 98-page presentation, visit: http://scr.bi/gbSIsO

William E. Lewis Jr. & Associates is a solutions based professional consulting firm specializing in the discriminating individual, business or governmental entity. To learn more, tune into “The Credit Report with Bill Lewis,” a daily forum for business and financial news, politics, economic trends, and cutting edge issues on AM 1470 WWNN.